Leicester City vs Aston Villa 09/01/20

9 January 2020

Leicester City welcome Aston Villa to the King Power Stadium in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-finals tie this week.

The hosts come into this game on a run of three consecutive triumphs in all competitions, scoring at least one goal in all six halves of competitive action played across those fixtures. Also, the Foxes boast an intimidating home record this season (W8, D2, L1), with each of those victories seeing Leicester score two or more goals. It will be vital for Leicester to find the opening goal here, as they’ve won all five of the competitive home games that have seen them break the deadlock. But, Brendan Rodgers’ men have also shown determination when conceding first. They’ve picked up two triumphs in four home matches, where they’ve shipped the opener, losing once in the other two (D1, L1). Rodgers must be lining up another success here, as Leicester have outplayed Aston Villa in both of their previous home H2Hs, although both of those wins have come via a single-goal margin.

Meanwhile, the visitors have endured mixed fortunes in their last six competitive outings (W3, L3), with all of those results (win/loss) seeing the winners on the day score the opening goal. Moreover, none of Villa’s last nine competitive games has ended in a stalemate (W3, L6), with all six of their failures in that nine-match sequence witnessing the Villans concede over 1.5 goals. Another reason the Lions are considered underdogs ahead of the kick-off is their dismal away record since October. Dean Smith’s men have suffered six defeats in eight road trips since October (W1, D1), drawing a blank on three of those occasions, while conceding 2+ match goals on seven. The clean-sheet theme seems to be unreachable for Villa, considering they’ve failed to shut Leicester out in all eight of their previous competitive H2Hs.